Sunday, June 28, 2009

You all I just came to realise that all mothers (of course those who are genuine) think and behave the same. They are worried for their children, irregardless of the age group they are in. When my children were young, I was worried if they have enought to drink/eat. Are they sleeping enough? Will they be abused/beaten by the maid in my absence? Every single moment, I am thinking of their welfare even till today. In their teens, there are the BGR problems which we are concern if they are able to handle, pressures of school work, social, friends they mix with. As for the boy, I was extremely concern if he is mixing with right company, pick up bad influences, etc. Now that he is an adult, working and never comes home early most times, I am worried if he is eating well, managing his finances properly, etc. I thank God always for sustaining me throughout these times.

Why am I saying all these. My mother in law (gee's mum) expressed her concerns when she was told by him that he is planning to downgrade to a HDB flat and also at the same time to retire from work. She could not sleep the whole night thinking about it. My heart went out to her for her concern. She is after all still a mother. We have to alley her fears that he is doing alright and that ultimately all of us will have to retire. Thank God for the durians that Gee brought for her to soothe and calm her down.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Enjoyed a lazy morning at home and decided later to go somewhere for a good western lunch. Gee surfed the net and found this italian place near the stable lodge (Turf Club). The chef at Picotine was formally from Sebastian's. Look what we had for lunch. Delicious !!

We then proceeded to Island Cremery for ice cream. Sour Sop Sorbet and Pulot Hitam .We had too much for lunch !!

It's amazing how much durians I have eaten this year! This evening I come back to yet another box of durians from Violet. Even though they are not Cat Mountain King type, they are delicious ! So nice of her to even throw in a bag of mangosteens with these durians.

We had wanted to treat her and our parents to a feast of the king fruits, but she beat Vincent to pay for them - total $150 for 16kg of durians from Geylang !! We must treat them to Cat Mountain King durians when my girl comes home.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

By coincidence, Violet and Gina are able to make it for dinner with dad and mum, so we decided to take them out for dinner. Gina suggested that we try dianxiaoer at Jurong Point - www.­dianxiaoer.­com.­sg as she hears that the ducks there are good. All early birds who visit the restaurant before 6:30pm will be given a discount of 15%. We were there 5 mins before 6:30 pm and were given a token to enjoy this special discount. We did not select the set menu as mum would like to try the buddha jumps over the wall soup. The dishes we ordered were duck with 10 types of herbs, fried cod fish, 2 x soup, dong po (fatty pork meat), kai lan and seafood brocoli. The total bill came up to be $138 after discount. Food is so so and think they put in lots of ajinomoto as we were all thirsty after the meal. Anyway as they do not have the dessert we wanted, we proceeded to JinDeZi (Hong Kong dessert outlet) at the old wing for various types of desserts. Dad even tried the durian pastry!!We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and feel we should make this sort of night out more often in future. Glad that mum looked happy.

We have a guest speaker, Maria Broersma, who is a gifted YWAM teacher currently based in Singapore. She brought to us a message entitled "God Remembers" at both E2 & E3 services at St James Church. She has a good sense of humour and always speaks in idioms to those close to her. She tells us the God has a memory like a steel trap. Why did she said that? When she was young her dad would place a huge trap to trap mice and when these mice are trapped they are definitely trapped and cannot escape. I was very encouraged by the sermon - God sees, God knows, never forgets and God rewards for our service to him.

Today, I received an email from Susan with the following encouraging words again,

" Hi all, I do not think it is a coincidence that my eldest daughter shared with me the above song after she came back from Cebu on Sunday and the lyrics are exactly in congruence to last Sunday's sermon (God Remembers). I believe God is reassuring all of us who are serving him in big or small ways that it is all worthwhile. Be encouraged. I am attaching the lyrics but you can listen to the song on Y-Tube.

Lyrics from the song: THANK YOU FOR GIVING TO THE LORD

I dreamed I went to heaven
And you were there with me;
We walked upon the streets of gold
Beside the crystal sea
We heard these angels singing
Then someone called your name
We turned and saw this young man running
And he was smiling as he came.

And he said, “Friend you may not know me now.”
And then he said, “But wait,
You used to teach my Sunday School
When I was only eight
And every week you would say a prayer
Before the class would start
one day when you said that prayer,
I asked Jesus in my heart.”

Chorus: so THANK YOU FOR GIVING TO THE LORD
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord
I am so glad you gave.

Then another man stood before you
said, “Remember the time
A missionary came to your church
And his pictures made you cry.
You didn’t have much money,
But you gave it anyway.
Jesus took the gift you gave
And that’s why I’m in heaven today.”
Repeat Chorus.

One by one they came
Far as your eyes could see.
Each life somehow touched
By your generosity.
Little things that you had done
Sacrifices made,
they went unnoticed on the earth
In heaven, now proclaimed.

And I know up in heaven
You’re not supposed to cry
But I am almost sure
I saw tears in your eyes.
As Jesus took your hand
And you stood before the Lord
He said, “My child, look around you.
Great is your reward.”

I signed up the water colour painting class at TP CC on 1 June 2009. Cost fee is S$150 for 4 lessons. Class starts at 7:00pm. After waiting so anxiously to start on my new art piece, I realised that the class does not sell painting materials. Fortunately the teacher had some papers with her and I had tostart to learn how to sketch first. Subsequently went to Straits at Bugis to purchase the materials. My first piece, a scenery of Kukup. After 4 lessons, see the final product of my first piece.

Durians ! How I came to love durians so much I believe the journey started last year (2008) when my "gee" bought a box of Mao Sun Wang home. They were solid and full of the custardy (if there is this word in the dictionary) fruit. I fell in love with it. Every day I would look forward to going home just to savour one seed every evening.

Well, for this year, gee again pampered me with durians. As I craved for them in May, he surprised me on evening by buying a box from Geylang at a cut throat price. They are not mao sun wang but good anyway. Then in June, we tried for the first time the stall at Dempsey carpark. Apparently Ah Tee has been selling there for 40 years and we have not even bothered to take a look at his durians. His durians are good ! Met Yoke Toh, Fu Yen and Yi Ann there too!! Their first time as well. We bought the Kaya and another local.

Gee went to Dempsey again 2 weeks later to look for MSW but instead brought back local durians again but they are very very good too.

Last week, after our crab meal at Ghim Moh, the stall next to the restaurant was selling MSW at $8/kg and we bought one too. It was delicious !!